VALUE OF ILLEGITIMATE LIFE.

NZ Truth, Issue 143, 14 March 1908, Page 8

VALUE OF ILLEGITIMATE LIFE.

The Criminal David Chard.

Some Comments on the Case.

In passing the lenient sentence of four years' imprisonment upon the diabolical criminal, David Chard, a Teran.'-. (Vie.) farmer, who sought to cause the murder of his illegitimate daughter by poison, the facts of which were recently recorded m "Truth," Mr Justice Hood said the offence was one' of extreme rarity, and therefore he was not troubled about a light sentence failing to act as a deterrent to others. "Truth" joins issue with his Honor*, and avers that although Chard's method may be rare, the desire to slay the natural sequence of illicit amours is by. no means of an isolated character. Chard's action was . singular m its cold-blooded stupidity and its fiendish, brutal directness, but his actuating motive was decidedly commonplace. It is manjifest that the mortality among babes BORN OUT OF WEDLOCK ia. simply enormous, which is not sur-. prising when it is recognised that not < only fathers of the Chard disposi-' tion, but, m very many cases, mothers are anxious for their deiath. Almost every man who begets a child illicitly endeavors either to deny paternity or to escape the responsibility of its maintenance, whilst news of its demise is invariably received with a sigh of selfish relief. Then, as regards the unwedded women who give the' unwelcome babes birth, the proverbial mother's love is overwhelmed by THE INSTINCT OP SELF-PRE- ' SERVATION, which is rightly designated the first law of nature. The result is too often the. voluntary sacrifice of the babe. Before the advent of the existing Infant Lif.e Protection Act it was a frequent occurrence for young mothers, after delivery,- to calmly pay some sour-faced old hag to take their newly-born babes away to a "farm," well knowing that they were to be subjected to the torture of a living skeletonisation and a lingering death, whilst since the amended law women and girls are to be daily seen m the police courts and elsewhere taking away their from three and four months' old infants and handing them over without a tear to the Neglected Children's Department for '"boarding out," and the morgue. A visit to the numerous maternity homes, public and private, where unwedded girls, are confined, will convince that "MOTHER'S LOVE" BECOMES a negligible quantity when accompanied by acute distress and personal considerations'. Like hunted ani- ' mals, the predominating desire which the unfortunate girls evince is to rid themselves of their young. In happier circumstances the self-same mothers, snugly ensconsed m the' law, would be devoted to their children, and callous progenitors, by lawful love, would be transformed into affectionate fathers and warm benefactors. While human nature remains as it is, no complete remedy is vssthin measurable view ; but a State, sensible of its obligations and responsibilities, might achieve a great deal m the WAY OP AMELIORATION, The fact, however, is that m present conditions the State practically connives at lightly valuing the lives of illegitimate infants. The protection it affords is of a half-hearted description, and the supervision is of a perfunctory character. A child's bastardy, until <iuite recently, debarred it from proper recognition as a legalised entity of the community. Latterly relief has been given m this respect, and unmarried mothers have been afforded opportunities of forcing their- paramours to provide the expenses incidental to their confinement, but comparatively little has been done for the child, except to compel OP ALLEGED . NURSES m order to stop indiscriminate "farming" on a wholesale scale, and to make it compulsory on every man* to maintain his offspring, whether begotten by illicit lust or m wedlock ; , but throughout the whole system of administration there runs an unconscious bias against the unfortunate infants, who are regarded at the outward and visible sign of an apparently incurable social canker. . The jury who recommended the fiendish Chard to mercy, and the learned Judge who gave him a light sentence, were probably unconsciously swayed by the unconscious bias which animates the community and which results m a general failure to APPRECIATE ILLEGITIMATE LIFE at its full value. Had a lawful father incited a lawful mother to poison the issue of their marriage for mercenary' considerations on the Chard method, the chances are he would have received the maximum punishment—ls years.— Melbourne - "Truth.:"'